Retail Chain Stores

The Challenge

The geographically dispersed stores that form retail chains are organized centrally, with headquarters managing the most important business processes. Whatever the organizational form of the network (sole-owner, franchise, holding), stock selection, logistics decisions, and relationships with suppliers are all managed centrally. In general, pricing, discount policy, administration, finance, and brand development are also handled at the headquarters.

As a key decision maker in the retail chain industry, you are challenged with becoming more competitive, streamlining your management, following a uniform pricing and discount policy, all while remaining aware of the varying tastes and preferences of your customers. Understandably, this may leave you feeling like a dog-walker trying to tame a pack of unruly and hyperactive hounds. Even central tasks, such as ensuring that stock is well merchandized and delivering the highest standards of customer service, may seem overwhelming.

These are the major challenges facing retail chains:

• The right stock lines

  Increasingly, customers want products that are better suited to their requirements. At the same time, a rising number of customers indicate that if they cannot find a certain specific item in a store, it deters them from making any purchases whatsoever. It is more important than ever to be as familiar as possible with the habits and needs of your customers so that you can offer them the products they desire.
  

• The logistics of retail chain stores

  The decisions about what stock should be carried in which stores and how and when it is delivered are made within the context of product and sales life cycles. Despite the differences between retail sectors, it remains the truth for all of them that decisions on what should be sold in a particular store are vital determinants of commercial success or failure.
  

• Pursuing uniform price and discount policies

  The latitude the stores have to decide pricing policy depends on the sector and the retail chain store model in question. It is nearly always headquarters however, that determines pricing, price lists, and promotions for the whole network or for particular regions.
  

• Comprehensive sales process analysis

  You need to have the ability to conduct comprehensive and multi-level sales and logistics analyses in order to make the right decisions for your company: benchmarking stores’ productivity by the square foot, analyzing margins, researching seasonal demand, and managing costs.
  

• Customer loyalty

  How to get it and how to keep it once you have it? This is a key question for any retailer. Customers who keep coming back are worth much more than those who only visit a store once. A happy customer is also much more likely to recommend the chain to friends and acquaintances which can lead to an enhanced brand image and increased profits. This makes any form of loyalty program that can draw customers back for repeat visits a vital business tool.
  

• IT Infrastructure Management

  A contemporary retail chain store cannot be run without the use of IT systems. But these systems and all the information they provide may lead to more questions: How do you coordinate information between your headquarters and your stores? How do you continue to sell even when one of the key pillars of the system goes down? How can you manage the backup data and install updates centrally? How can you analyze data from the stores efficiently?

Tutorial

Effective customer service is one of the basic tasks of a Point of Sales (POS) system. Comarch ALTUM Retail delivers speedy and convenient service for both keypads and touchscreens. This tutorial will show you how easy it is to complete these everyday retail tasks:

• Adding products to a purchase using 2 available methods: selecting from a list or by entering an item number
• Selecting products by features like colors or size
• Viewing images assigned to an item
• Removing an item from a purchase (you can customize the system so that a manager must be present to do this)
• Authentication, payment and confirmation for sales

See how fast and effective customer service can be with Comarch ALTUM Retail!

Comarch ATLUM Retail

Comarch ALTUM Retail enables the comprehensive management of chain stores: providing the right tools to headquarters, to the back office, and to the points of sale.

Comarch ALTUM Retail offers the following vital features:

• Built-in business intelligence tool interprets data gathered from the entire chain. Preparing reports integral to your business will be easier than ever: once a report is ready it is automatically updated every day. The benchmarking analyses and promotions reports arm you with data to shape your pricing and discount policy. The sales reports, which cover critical indicators such as sales per square feet, seasonal variations, and margin analysis, allow you decipher what stock to offer and make decisions about how to merchandise goods throughout the chain. An analysis of costs incurred both at your headquarters and your stores assists in reducing unnecessary expenditure.
  
• Comarch ALTUM allows you to synchronize between your headquarters and your stores so you can manage prices, discounts, and promotions centrally. You can define prices for the entire chain or for particular regions and stores, allowing you to respond to varying levels of demand. The flexible authorization system allows you to control how individual stores may set their own prices and discounts.

• Since the central customer database is accessible from all the stores, you can start a loyalty system based on points or introduce a loyalty card.
  
• The sales interface allows your employees to view inventory levels in dispersed and distant locations.
  
• Comarch ALTUM Retail was designed to enable the stores to operate efficiently even if there is an interruption in connectivity to the system at headquarters. All computers in the network from the central server to the individual stores are equipped with an independent database that maintains continuity of operations when the network connection is lost or interrupted. The data synchronization is in an offline, cascade and multi-level model. It is also possible to install the system in online mode.
  
• The data concerning customer information, goods, prices and promotions, user authorizations, the appearance of the user interface, transactions in the stores and inventory levels is sent during synchronization between headquarters and the stores (or between the stores and headquarters). It is also possible to remotely backup the databases at the stores and to remotely install updates.
  
• Comarch ALTUM can manage several dispersed warehouses, while the integrated finance and accounts module provides better control over settlements and costs.

Better service with increased customer satisfaction

Comarch ALTUM Retail enables rapid, straightforward service at points of sale that have touch screens or classic monitor and keyboard cash register interfaces. Because the system is ergonomic and user-friendly, training new employees will be simple and fast. Implementing a loyalty system can stimulate customer retention leading to increased customer satisfaction. Since you will have more complete information about your customers and their behavior, you can better match your store’s product line to the needs of the market.

Cost Reduction

The Business Intelligence multi-dimensional analysis tool in Comarch ALTUM provides heightened and more precise cost control. A cross-analysis that looks at current inventory levels as well as goods on order will help you maintain optimum stock levels. This releases cash that would otherwise have been committed to goods and reduces warehousing costs. The enhanced receivables and liabilities management in Comarch ALTUM improves company liquidity and reduces financial costs. Finally, the system’s architecture and method of synchronization between stores and your headquarters also reduces your costs and automates day-to-day activities.

Product line that matches customer needs

The Business Intelligence tools available within Comarch ALTUM deliver reports that will help you decide which products to include and which to discard. The options to analyze customer preferences, the effectiveness of promotions and price cuts, and variations in sales according to season will give you the power to make decisions on your product line based on facts and not only on intuition. An analysis of the frequency of sales according to the time of day, day of the week, and month provides a further tool that can lift your customer service to the next level.

Lower software costs and better support

Comarch ALTUM Retail is a complete and all-round solution that supports all retail chain store business processes: inventory, sales, accounting, and data analysis. Because the system has complete functionality across all the departments in your business, you can use one piece of software instead of multiple products – allowing you to lower your costs to buy and maintain your system. Finally, since you will receive support of the highest-quality from a single provider who is an expert in the field, you know that you will have all the help you need to implement the system according to your company’s specifications.